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California’s Proposition 8. A ballot entitled Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry. It was the dark lining on the cloud of liberal heaven that was the Nov 08 election. Passing with a 5% margin, the ballot enabled the Californian legislature to write laws that forbid the provision of equal rights to same-sex couples. The sad irony is that it would have passed had large numbers of African American voters turned out to vote for Barack Obama. On the whole, African Americans tend to be more church-centric than Caucasians, and thusly, more infavor of the definition of marriage as man/woman. As the Daily Show humerously pointed out, the oppressee had immediatley become the oppressor.

Today, on the opposite side of the continent, a Connecticut superior court judge cleared the way for the state to allow same sex couples to marry. And as the lines around courthouses will atest, people are taking full advantage of their rights. At least, they will until another judge over turns it.

And that’s how this is going to go, back and forth between the state legislatures and the courts, always dancing just shy of the Supreme Court. I fully expect a challenge to Prop 8 to be filed in before the year is out. And I fully expect groups on both side to push toward this case going before SCOTUS.

I’m thinking about this because a friend of mine is taking part in a nation wide protest against the outcome of Prop 8. He’s encouraging us to join him. And while I do appreciate why he’s feeling the way that he does, I don’t think protest of any kind will bring the resolution, or even begin to affect the outcome of this situation. This will be a protracted legal battle that will hopefully end in the SCOTUS acknowledging that any restrictions put on a legally recognized union between two humans is a violation of the First and Eighth Amendments.

Until that point, the two liberal coasts are going to keep putting ballots out there that are going to end up with legal challenges. It’ll be a process of uplift and heartbreak. One that I’d advise everyone to stay the hell away from until you see nine old fucks wearing black robes in Washington giving a shit. You’re just gonna end up with your hearts broken.

Oh, and if there is any confusion on the subject, I think that all of this crap regarding gay marriage is our modern segregation. In all of the arguments about gay rights, change the words “gay”, “lesbian”, and “homosexual” to “black” or “mixed-race” and you’ll sound like a racist out of the 50s. I’ve gone on record with the local news saying this back when they were trying to amend the Constitution during the last presidential election. Laws should be made to protect individuals and society, not to discriminate.

Addendum:
Adding this in case people think I’m a lazy fuck and want to go exercise their right to protest.

The group organizing their protest is called Join the Impact. Their national site is here, and their local Memphis protest page is here.

Thanks Patrick. I was just about to post that. Dailykos had an article as well, which I can’t seem to find right now.

Also Zach, I share some of your pessimism about protests, but firmly believe that cultural change only takes place when people are made aware of dissenting opinions. If you just let the courts and litigators decide, you lose an opportunity to spread your message. A lot of drops fill the bucket. Doesn’t that also fit your civil rights metaphor?

@Patrick
I’m not talking about first time voters, like 538 is. I’m talking about occasional voters. People that didn’t vote in 04 because Kerry was just another rich white guy, but did vote in 92 when Clinton was the white black guy. People who are over 30 and in a racial minority. I think that they were the ones that pushed Prop 8 in one direction over the other.

Unfortunately, there is no polling data available on those groups to prove anything beyond my gut feeling. 538′s data for these number stops at age 29.

@El Cacique
I had civil rights metaphor? You’ll have to forgive me, my brain is stewing in a fever at the moment.

And not to sound like a dick, but don’t courts fail if they pay attention to any message but the letter of the law and the Constitution?

dark lurker

A few years later i’m working at a convenience store with a gay african american soldier. In between deep philosophical conversations I noticed that most of the African American customers seemed to be amused and welcoming of his obvious(no disrespect) homosexuality. The coworkers were too. It was only during heated arguments that it became an issue. Apparetly they thought it didn’t stink.

El Cacique

Please excuse my lack of care with words. It was more your reference to 50′s racism that I was talking about, the Civil Rights movement being the solution to that issue.

First of all, the Supreme Court and its decisions, which are interpretive, do not exist in a vacuum. Regardless, if it’s law and constitution that decisions must be based upon, then it’s the general populace that has to change those things.

Aside from that, even if the law is on the side of homosexual unions according to the interpretation of each and every SC justice, it remains necessary to swing the general populace to that conclusion. How else will bigotry be stopped? You can’t just pass a law/make a decision telling people “you must accept this.” You have to convince them too.

@El Cacique
We’re talking about a generational or longer shift, just like racial and sexual equality. The laws will be written and decided well before the majority of the nation agrees with them. Social change that comes suddenly is rarely good and hardly ever lasts.

Like 538 pointed out in their article – we’re going to outlive this problem as the Baby Boomers and their sires die out.

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About the Author

My name is Zachary Whitten. I live in Memphis. I work at Combustion. I make the pretty things on the Internet work. I drink. I plot and I scheme. I occasionally write things that will probably never see the light of day.